While others looked for life rafts in the turbulent economic sea, the five fastest-growing companies on the Private 100 list went into 2010 at full throttle. However, it's not all smooth sailing. Several of the fast five report that 2011 will end up a strong year, but not with the same revenue growth that rocketed them onto this year's Fast Five. Many expect the strategies they are instituting now will lead to more growth in 2012 and beyond.
All five are making their debut on the Fast Five list, and one, Namtek Corp., is new to the Private 100 entirely. The list came close to having a repeat-Salient Surgical Technologies Inc. in Portsmouth, which graced last year's Private 100 cover. It recorded impressive growth in 2010, making it 2010's second-fastest growing company. This July, the medical technology company announced it is being acquired by publicly traded Medtronic Inc. in Minneapolis. The total value of the deal is $525 million. Medtronic had previously invested in Salient and holds an ownership stake in the company. The deal was expected to go through prior to publication of the Private 100 list.
The five fastest-growing companies are determined by averaging each company's annual revenue growth over three years (2008, 2009 and 2010 in this case). So what was behind the Fast Five's impressive growth? They instituted strategies early to combat the recession, returning to business basics and emphasizing customer service, focusing on repeat business, investing in staff and following the business instead of expecting the business to come to them. Those strategies paid off in 2010, turning a modest economic recovery for most businesses into a lucrative year for the Fast Five.
EPE Corporation
Second Fastest:North Branch Construction Inc.
Third Fastest:Namtek Corp.
Wakefield Solutions Inc.
Fifth Fastest:Adaptive Communications
Web Site: www.adaptcom.com
This customized IT provider is true to its name. By expanding its offerings in recent years when others cut back, Adaptive Communications in Portsmouth not only survived, but thrived.
We got close to our clients and listened to what they liked about Adaptive and what they thought could be improved, says President Steve Thorpe. Many customers were consolidating the number of vendors they dealt with during the recession. So Adaptive Communications expanded beyond connectivity and security to storage products, Thorpe says, and that fueled the company's growth.
Adaptive has also been growing its geographic footprint and now has offices in Connecticut, Florida and Virginia. After a slight dip in sales between 2008 and 2009, the company saw revenues spike in 2010.
Thorpe has worked in the technology market since the mid '80s, first for Cabletron and then other companies before starting Adaptive with Brent McLeod and his wife, Margie, in 1997. They built it into a multi-million dollar company with 39 employees.
Adaptive Communications provides customized IT infrastructure, information security, and data storage solutions to private sector customers, including those in retail, finance, health care, higher education and manufacturing. Among the providers it partners with are NetAPP, Palo Alto Networks, Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks-the latter two named Adaptive their Eastern U.S. Partner of the Year award recipients in April.
Thorpe attributes Adaptive's success in part to its investment in employee training to grow staff skills and help promote from within. He says company revenues grew substantially this year, but not as much as between 2009 and 2010. 2011 is interesting. The first quarter was outstanding. We grew 60 percent from the first quarter of 2010, Thorpe says. The second quarter was a little soft.
Thorpe anticipates adding up to four sales reps in the next year and recently filled positions for engineering, purchasing and inside sales. I feel very fortunate to be in the position I'm in and building a team, he says.
To meet the leaders of these companies, join us at the Private 100 Reception on October 24 in Concord. Details at www.EventsNH.com.
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